LUNAR CAPE – Legends Of Nantucket Island
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More than three years ago, I was overwhelmed by a triple CD album from Russian folk prog band Lunar Cape. Although all three CDs featured the same songs, one came with English narration, another one with Russian narration, and the final one was instrumental. Now they are back with their third and newest record Legends Of Nantucket Island, and once again their whimsical folk infused progressive rock is toying with the medium of fairy tales. Unlike last time, the band is now less sprawling, offering ten tracks on a single record, and if I am not mistaken, this seems to be a download-only release. The mood and the two spoken-word pieces are inspired by Herman Melville’s classic novel “Moby Dick”, and this shows also by the instruments used. While the backing band is providing guitar, bass and drums, band leader Olga Scotland is mostly playing the flute but also a lot of other wind instruments: alto recorder, melodica, tin whistle and ocarina. The idea of combining flutes with progressive rock might remind you of Jethro Tull, although Lunar Cape are mostly acting much tamer. Another parallel might be the mid-nineties album Harbour Of Tears of art rockers Camel who back then also used a lot of Irish influences in the music. There is nothing to complain about the technical abilities of all musicians involved. And yet what I miss is a certain flow that is too often disrupted. The album starts for instance with the short but crunchy folk rock song Gauguin’s Genes, just to be followed by a two-minute-long spoken word part courtesy of Toyah Willcox, a British singer currently being popular for her antics with husband and recently retired King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp. The following Nantucket is at five minutes one of the longer tracks, and shows that Lunar Cape are at their best when they take time to develop their ideas. Alas, we get yet another spoken word track, this time from an incognito narrator. Other highlights include Quarrel, a four-minute song that still manages to come up with many moods and one of the rare moments where the guitarist gets to distort his instrument. The same goes for Vampire Tango, at seven minutes the longest track. At thirty-six minutes, Legends Of Nantucket Island is a rather short album. Subtract the two spoken word pieces and one other silly interlude, and you are left with only a good half hour of music. Half of the material is really quite impressive, but Lunar Cape missed the occasion to bring it all together into one cohesive piece of art. We don’t need more triple-CD releases, but I don’t give up my hope that their next album will finally reach that level that I just now Olga Scotland and her band are capable of. |
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10 songs |
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36:04 minutes |
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***** ** |
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Genre: progressive folk rock Label: ArtBeat |
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